DEJA VU PETE SAMPRAS LEFT THE FRENCH OPEN IN FAMILIAR FASHION--AS AN UPSET VICTIM THINKING OF A FRIEND IN TROUBLE

He grimaced. He shrugged his shoulders. He stood there frozen,unable at times even to lift his racket, as ball after ball flewpast. Nobody in tennis comes undone more spectacularly than PeteSampras, and this was classic Sampras. On a beautiful Fridayafternoon in Paris, with conditions perfectly suited for hisgame and his opponent wearing all the earmarks of a third-roundvictim, Sampras, the world's No. 1 player, presented to theworld yet another woebegone portrait. He had come to the FrenchOpen obsessed with winning the one Grand Slam event he hasn'tmastered, but now, battling the aftereffects ofdiarrhea--flashes of dizziness, exhaustion, fever andchills--Sampras was nobody's idea of a champion. His servesleaped into the net like misguided fish, his forehands flewlong, and, in the second set, he tugged a racket out of thecourtside refrigerator and placed it against his burningforehead. The crowd begged: Allez, Pete! But Sampras was goingdown, and the enduring message he could take into the rest ofhis career was a simple one. Nothing he wants seems to come easy.

Why think otherwise? Last year Sampras endured threefive-setters, beat two former French Open champions and bulledinto the semifinals before losing to Yevgeny Kafelnikov, whowent on to win the tournament. This year the event seemedparticularly ripe for him to pick. Boris Becker, Andre Agassiand Michael Stich withdrew before the fortnight began, andthrough the first five days the sun battered the red claycourts, hammering them hard, making them better suited forsomeone with Sampras's big-serve, hard-court game. He handledhis first two opponents, clay-court specialists Fabrice Santoroand Francisco Clavet, with such ease that his confidence soared.

"Hitting the ball like I am, serving well, I'm going to bepretty tough to beat," Sampras said after Clavet won just fivegames against him. All the talk about Sampras's injured rightwrist and left thigh, his two first-round losses heading intoParis, began to fade.

But once Sampras got leveled by a common case of tourista, andMagnus Norman celebrated his 21st birthday by upending him 6-2,6-4, 2-6, 6-4, Sampras wasn't alone in wondering whether histremendous talent hadn't come at a maddening price. He has bothendured and lost out to a slew of physicalbreakdowns--including, most famously, his five-set, vomit-marredwin over dehydration and Alex Corretja in the quarterfinals oflast year's U.S. Open, and for two years he lived through theterminal illness of his coach Tim Gullikson. "At times it justseems like in my life things happen," Sampras said the morningafter losing to Norman. "Things just happen around me that testme."

The testing isn't over. Just before flying to Europe last month,Sampras learned that the architect of his game and his coachfrom age nine to 18, Southern California pediatrician PeteFischer, had been charged with molesting a 14-year-old boyduring a series of medical examinations. When Sampras's brother,Gus, relayed the news to him over the phone, "I was in a stateof shock," Pete said last week. "I felt sick."

On May 15, Fischer, 55, was arraigned in Los Angeles SuperiorCourt on three counts of child molestation and three of analpenetration with a foreign object. (The counts carry penaltiesranging from one to eight years in prison.) The case involves aboy whom Fischer was treating for a growth defect, according toL.A. Deputy District Attorney Eloise Phillips, who says thatthe child's mother grew suspicious when her son's behaviorchanged after he began going to Fischer.

Fischer's attorney, Stephan DeSales, calls the charges unfoundedand says Fischer was simply doing his job as a pediatricendocrinologist. "In the course of treating him withtestosterone, Dr. Fischer did a prostatic examination [in whichthe physician inserts a finger into the patient's rectum tocheck the prostate], and he did this three times," DeSales says.The procedure was noted by Fischer in the medical record,DeSales says. Before bringing charges, Phillips says, sheconsulted the California Medical Board, which referred her to adoctor who said he found the procedure performed by Fischer tobe improper. Phillips says Fischer is also being accused ofmasturbating the boy during the examinations.

Fischer was arrested on Feb. 20 by Downey, Calif., police, whodid not charge him or release information about the case untillast month, while continuing their investigation. A hearing isscheduled for June 19. Fischer is not allowed to practicemedicine until the state medical board holds a separate hearing."This has ruined his life," DeSales says.

Last Thursday, Fischer, who is free on his own recognizance,said, "I served my country in Vietnam. I believe 100 percent inthe system. I'm innocent of any crime."

Asked if he had spoken to Sampras, who had beaten Clavet the daybefore, Fischer said, "I can't talk to Pete during the French,and I won't. Personally, I would appreciate, if this does comeout, that it not come out during the French. He knows. But thiscould be the year he wins the French, and we want it."

Told of Fischer's comment, Sampras wasn't surprised. It was,after all, Fischer who focused him on winning Grand Slamevents--and helped fuel his quest to win the French. The twosevered their relationship in 1989 in a bitter dispute overcompensation but renewed their complicated friendship four yearsago; Sampras respects Fischer's tennis judgment and values hisopinion over anyone else's in the game, but he is so unnerved byFischer's obsession with perfection that he rarely allowsFischer to come to tournaments. But Sampras still has greatregard for Fischer, who works with a number of children inSouthern California, including up-and-comer Alexandra Stevenson,a member of the U.S. Junior National Team. In his nine yearswith Fischer, Sampras said, he never saw a hint of unseemlybehavior, nor did he hear of any. "Absolutely not," Samprassaid. "I support Pete. He's been like a second father to mesince I was eight. The hard thing for me is that his reputationwill never be the same."

Sampras doesn't believe Fischer's arrest weighed on him duringthis clay-court season. His diarrhea had cleared by the morningof the Norman match, but within four games Sampras felt "totallydisoriented. It was kind of a weird day." Kind of? By the end ofthe first set, Sampras was sure he was going to have to pull outof the match. Norman, ranked 65th, had heard of his opponent'scondition the night before from friends in Sweden who had heardmention of Sampras's illness on a news report. When he sawSampras hobbling, Norman didn't let up. He won the first twosets, and although Sampras found his serve in the third set, hewas running on fumes. Norman recovered in the fourth, movingSampras around the court and taking advantage of an astonishing22 unforced errors. "I beat him," Norman said. "If he was sick,that's his problem."

So, too, for another year, is the French Open. Sampras is 25,and though he may have a lot of big years left, he's beginningto think he may not be meant to win this tournament. "It will bea continuing struggle for me to win here," he said. "I realizethat."

The morning after the loss, a car waited outside his hotel totake Sampras to the airport. He wanted to get out of Parisquickly. He planned to go to Southern California to see hisfamily and Fischer. "I'll call him and see him and see how he'sdoing," Sampras said. "Whatever I can do to help." He will alsotry--and fail--to figure out what it is about his life thatbrings him, once again, face to face with a friend in deeptrouble. "This is bizarre," Sampras said. "I don't know what tothink anymore."

COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY BOB MARTIN French Cut Venus Williams lit up Paris with herdaring 'do before losing to Nathalie Tauziat 5-7, 6-3, 7-5 at the upset-filled French Open (page64). [T of C]COLOR PHOTO: BOB MARTIN [Pete Sampras in game]COLOR PHOTO: HEINZ KLUETMEIER Norman wasn't about to go easy on an ailing Sampras because, he said, "if he was sick, that's his problem." [Magnus Norman in game]